Vitello’s 21 Not Enough as Panthers Lose to Former Coach

Bridgewater-Raritan guard Sal Vitello had a game high 21 points, but it was not enough as the Panthers fell to Rutgers Prep 68-50 in the quarterfinals of the Somerset County Tournament Saturday.

Steve Danyluk added 13 points for the Panthers, who now fall to 9-10 on the season. 

Although not happy with the result, head coach Gene McAteer commented on his team’s effort against a very tough Rutgers Prep team.

“I think Rutgers Prep is a very good basketball team,” McAteer said.  “I was proud of our team’s resiliency in the first half. We were able to respond to their fast start and made a run of our own.”

“Defensively, we knew there would be some difficulties in guarding them,” McAteer added. “Matt Rennie is a terrific player in the low post, and he created matchup problems for us.”

Rennie and Joe Kacmarsky each added 19 points for Rutgers Prep, which was the number two seed in the tournament. Mike Klinger had 12 points and Malcolm Thomas finished with 10 to round out a balanced scoring attack for Rutgers Prep.

Vitello scored 18 of his points in the first half. In the second half, Rutgers Prep turned to Greg Grippo to hold Vitello to three fourth quarter points and slow down the Panthers' offense.

Bridgewater stayed very competitive through the first half when the team only trailed Rutgers Prep 36-32 at the break. Rennie had 10 of the first 14 points for the Argonauts and McAteer had to adjust the defense to slow down the big man. 

However, when the Panthers were able to slow him down, he was still able to distribute the ball to his teammates, something McAteer praised about the Rutgers Prep player.

“Obviously we couldn’t guard him with one guy,” McAteer said. “So we had to surround him with a couple of different players. Matt Rennie impressed me with his passing today, and his ability to find the open jump shooter. Today they were able to take advantage of those open looks.”

Senior captain Andrew Ortelli, who finished with five points, also commented on Rennie’s play.

“We played really hard today,” Ortelli said. “Rennie was killing us inside, and they were able to hit their shots. We needed them to miss shots and unfortunately, it didn’t happen that much today.”

The intriguing storyline that this game produced was “The Battle of the Ortelli’s.”  While Bridgewater has Andrew as a player, Rutgers Prep has head coach Tim Ortelli, who previously coached the Panthers for 15 years and posted a 276-95 record during his tenure.

Saturday's county game was the first time that Bridgewater faced an Ortelli coached team.

“We knew Bridgewater was going to come in and compete,” Tim Ortelli said.  “Once we start playing the game, it’s about competition. It took us a little while to make adjustments, but once we did we were able to play our style of basketball.”

After the game, the Bridgewater coaching legend could do nothing but remember his time as the head coach of the Panthers.

“It was very awkward for me,” Ortelli said. “Obviously, I was a small part of Bridgewater’s world, and they were a very big part of mine.”

The coach had never before thought about what it would be like to face his former team.

“Life takes you in different paths,” Ortelli said. “I stepped out of Bridgewater because of my wife’s wonderful job opportunity and when things cleared up there over the last few years, I was able to get back into coaching. I really never gave it much thought before today.”

Father and son shared similar feelings about playing each other. For Andrew, this will be a game that he will not soon forget.

“I never thought this would happen,” Ortelli said about playing his father. “It just happened to be that way. It was a unique experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Although it was tough for both Ortelli’s not to think about playing each other, McAteer felt his team was prepared to play the talented Rutgers Prep team and advance to the next round of the county tournament.

“I think it was weird for both Andrew and Tim,” McAteer said. “This was the first time that father and son were playing against each other.”

“I kind of felt as though our team was focused on the fact that Rutgers Prep was a very good team,” he added. “We knew going in we had a chance to compete with a very good team and advance in the county tournament. I’m sure we were focused on the game, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of them were thinking about the Ortelli matchup in the back of their minds.”

Tim Ortelli had mixed feelings after the game as his team now advances, while his son’s team will now put all of its attention toward the state tournament.

“My son’s my favorite player, and I told my team that before the game,” Ortelli said. “My son is my favorite player and everyone on my team is my second favorite. Our goal was to get to the county final because you obviously can’t win it unless you’re in it. Bridgewater was a big step in our way, and we had to take care of them if we wanted to play next Saturday."

“I told my team that I’m definitely going to the County Final next week,” he added.  “I told them I was going either as a coach or a parent, but I would prefer to go as a coach this year.”

Andrew Ortelli said he was disappointed about the result, and admitted that there was more at stake because he wanted to beat his father’s team.

“Of course I wanted to win this to beat my dad," Ortelli said. “Obviously, the team comes first and we wanted to make a big run in the counties since we haven’t done that in a while. However, now my dad has one up on me. I’ll probably have to go home and do the dishes or something.”